Youth Are Killed, And Where is the Outrage and Call for Accountability?

In the wake of the death of a five-year-old boy in Oakland, writer and youth worker Hector Gonzalez wonders why youth activism is not holding the community more accountable.

On December 30th, a 5-year-old boy was fatally
shot by a stray bullet. The boy was standing next to a taco truck with family
members in the city of Oakland. In 2011 alone, three other boys were shot by
stray bullets, two of them fatally. Carlos Nava, 3-years-old, was shot back in
August and Hiram Lawrence Jr., 1-year-old, was shot in November. With that said, my question is; Where
is the community outcry?

In a harsh, but bold, truth the community (including myself)
was there for the death of Oscar Grant, the young African American male who was
shot by BART Police back in ‘09. I recall attending vigils and marches in
solidarity for Oscar and all victims of police brutality. While living in
Berkeley and working in San Francisco, I even remember everyone leaving early
from work to catch the BART subway train home since it was rumored that the
BART was going to be shut down by protesters and community organizers. That
night businesses were burned, windows were shattered, as people flocked in the
thousand to demonstrate their rage against the actions of the police.

If anything, people should be rallying up, blocking traffic,
and possibly even burning things over the death of these innocent young boys as
well. People should have the same attitude as they did when the police officer
fatally shot Oscar Grant.

Injustice is injustice, and the community needs to hold
itself accountable.

For the record, I’ve been working with gang-involved youth
for the past 10 years. Some of the youth I’ve worked with have gone on to do
better things, some are facing life sentences in California state prisons, and
some are unfortunately no longer with us due to street violence. I have a warm
place in my heart for all the youth who ever crossed my path regardless of
whatever path they’ve chosen for themselves. Either way, in the case of
innocent bystanders being victims of gang violence, the community needs to take
a stand.

Having worked in San Jose, San Francisco and now relocated
in Los Angeles doing youth non-profit work, I notice that a lot of community
leaders lack the ability to hold these youth accountable. The attitude
especially in the Bay Area, is a romanticized depiction of how gang members are
victims of police harassment and harsh laws such as Proposition 21 that allow
youth to be tried as adults as well gang enhancement charges that extend the
punishment of crimes when it is alleged that the perpetrator belonged to a
gang. And while I do not agree with Proposition 21 or gang enhancements, if the
message we are trying to give to the greater society is that law enforcement
does not have the capacity to properly nurture these youth, then ultimately the
message should also include that we as a community have the capacity to nurture
our own. And this means holding young people accountable.

While working with one organization in San Francisco as a
case manager back in 2008, the agency I worked for would constantly clash heads
with the SFPD. The building I worked out provided a recreational space for
young people, and naturally, because of the services provided by the agency the
center was constantly filled with gang involved youth, mostly black and brown
kids from varies parts of the city. I appreciated the space in a sense that it
provided a safe environment where the youth do not have be hassled by cops or
be worried about rival gang members. But there was a problem. Outside of the
building, in a community mostly composed of Latinos and Filipinos in the
Excelsior district of San Francisco, some of our young people would rob
innocent bystanders and smoke marijuana in front of neighboring businesses and
homes. Fights in front of the building, and even shootings, would regularly
break out. Naturally, the community reacted by constantly calling the police
and thus a clash between the agencies arose.

The disconnect between the youth and the greater community
is that no one held the youth accountable. I noticed how ‘youth advocacy’
sometimes looked a lot like condoning criminal behavior.

As
community leaders, many of us will agree that locking up our youth with life
sentences is not the answer. All of us will agree that the killers of these
three young boys need to be held accountable, as an observer, I’m not sure why
Oakland hasn’t responded with the same attitude as it did after the death of
Oscar Grant.

Hector Gonzalez is a writer, hip hop artist and proud father originally from San Jose, and now is
based out of Southern California. He has been published in numerous
books and publications and also has performed across the U.S as an emcee
by the name of "Hegotistic".

Participatory democracy clearly includes holding our law enforcers accountable through our right to demonstrate and question. Thank you, Hector, for your call to action, asking us to do the same and to show the same outrage and activism when anyone commits similar acts of violence and mayhem.

By Diane Solomon
• January 4, 2012, 3:40 p.m.

that was my little couzin who got killd that wasnt suposed to happen if the law enforsemt was a bit more stricteron criminals like him

By gabriella
• March 29, 2012, 9:09 p.m.

Post a comment

Name

Email address

URL

Comment

If you enter anything in this field your comment will be treated as spam